Dreams in Our Skies
by Wildfires Within
Summary: "We've got clouds in our heads, dreams in our skies." "That's an interesting way of looking at things." A collection of one-shots and drabbles.
1. 060: Lonely

**Hello hello! So, a quick "summary" is in order, or so I believe…first of all, I'd like to formally apologize for putting 'Making Memories of Us' on hiatus, but hopefully with some sort of burst of inspiration from this, I can carry on with it. In fact, some of you may see tinges of that story in this one, but this one is going to be much much longer, and (hopefully), completed.**

**Also, this is based off of the 100 moods challenge on LiveJournal that I dug up from long ago. I'll probably be changing some of the moods, but until then, here goes nothing! **

**Enjoy!**

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><p><strong>060. Lonely<strong>

How they had wound up in this position was disputable. According to Annie, Auggie had been the one to lead them up his stairs, through his apartment and up another set of hidden stairs.

Auggie's side of the story said that Annie had spurred him on with her overwhelming sense of complete lonesomeness and that he couldn't have helped but shown her his thinking spot.

Up on the roof of his building, amongst several signs warning against "trespassing the premises", they found themselves lying against the hard cement of the roof.

"The signs say we shouldn't be up here Aug…" she whispered, partly afraid to wake up someone at this ungodly hour and the other part terrified to ruin the magic of Auggie's secret spot reserved for the most private of thoughts only.

"There are a lot of things we shouldn't do. And it's beside the point. The landlords let me break all the rules. They won't mind this one being broken either." Auggie said out loud, and quite loudly.

"Shh!" Annie insisted, trying to preserve the feeling of this secret place.

"Oh Annie, no one will hear us. I've gone up here after drinking binges, and nobody's ever bothered to shush the blind guy."

Annie stayed quiet, thinking about his choice of words. Auggie would make jokes about his permanent "condition" as he called it; he refused to see it as a disability despite the eagerness of most people to combine any and all deviations from the norm as a disability. However, these jokes, albeit funny, would sometimes make Annie feel as uncomfortable as she was when she had first realized he was blind.

The innocent jabs made Annie consider his place in life – how he was so easily accepting that he would never be able to see anyone in his life, not even his possibly future wife.

"Annie? I'm sorry, did I go too far?" He asked after her moment of silent consideration.

"It's not that. I don't know some days. I've been in such strange moods lately." Annie admitted honestly. And the truth, it was. Nothing major was going on at work, just the usual missions that went off without a hitch in the carefully construed plans, yet Annie was feeling anxious.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"That's the thing. There's nothing in particular to talk about. I'm so confused by these feelings too. But…I don't even think I can put it into words."

"Lately I've gotten the sense that you're….lonely, I guess is the best word for it…" Auggie said tentatively, as if afraid to step on Annie's toes or possibly, maybe hit a tender spot in Annie's mysterious psyche.

"Hmmm…." Annie perused his choice of such a particular word. "I…guess that…maybe you're right." That's all she said on the subject, so he knew better than to push it and upset her. Against her better judgment on intimate touches, she reached upwards and ran her hand through his hair.

Annie mussed it, soft touches not only comforting Auggie, but also bringing a sense of calm and relief to her own muddled mind. Auggie could only let his eyes close as Annie's lean fingers ran through the tendrils of his hair, back and forth, fiddling with certain pieces.

She stared up at the sky contemplating Auggie's previous words on her so-called loneliness. She wanted to comment, but she wasn't particularly sure how to go about it. Intimacy was difficult to establish with her, especially after Ben had taken off with some of the most personal things she cherished. Perhaps she was lonesome and she couldn't admit it to herself…an act of self-denial wouldn't be unusual considering her past.

Despite being in the city, something about Auggie's rooftop seemed to light the stars on fire as they twinkled and teased. Although so many of the stars looked so close, Annie knew better. People could appear as one thing, close in nature, but at a second glance, they were completely different than what was first expected, much further away.

If she was truthful with herself (which she was, in all honesty, trying to establish), Ben wasn't the only thing on her mind, nor was the path that had led to this particular moment in her life. Here she was, star-gazing and establishing closeness with her coworker and all around best guy friend, but wasn't it all too much? Annie could only be doubtful of where she and Auggie were headed.

They had established their friendship the moment Annie's dark pumps had hit the marbled floors of the CIA as a complete newbie to the way things worked, and Auggie couldn't help but take in the blonde beauty under his wing. Of course, at that moment, he had been completely unaware of her looks. He had only likened to her because she smelled nice and the clicking of her heels seemed a bit frantic and erratic, as if she was completely lost in the hustle and bustle of the secretive building.

From there, it wasn't difficult to maintain a friendship. Although it was discouraged between handlers and their agents, something about Auggie and Annie was completely different. It actually worked. They never brought the problems that possibly littered their friendship into the workplace, let alone unto missions that could be life or death.

Nevertheless, here was Annie, at a stalemate of sorts. She _was_ lonely, she finally admitted to herself, but surprisingly, it wasn't something that particularly bothered her. Her quiet ministrations had continued during her internal and quite personal monologue, so much so that Auggie's body language had completely shifted in the meantime.

He was leaning now leaning into Annie's touch, eyes still shut, breathing slowed. Annie hadn't notice to what extent they had changed in their own personal quiet time, but when she whispered his name and received a quiet murmur in response, she realized that he was half-asleep.

She gave him a second, and sure enough, he stirred. "Sorry Annie….what did you want to say?" He said back in a whisper this time. Perhaps he was afraid to break the moment, for sometimes, there are few opportunities like these to get people to open up. But perhaps, he realized that Annie needed the softness to be able to actually talk to him about her problems. Either way, he wasn't going to ruin this when he was about to gain a piece of Annie that not too many people saw, or so he presumed.

"…I just…you're right…" Annie started. A small smirk fell upon Auggie's lips without him thinking, and Annie let out a soft chuckle. "Don't go getting a big head now about your newly discovered and somehow amazing intuitive powers…"

His smirk faded into the night, and he wanted to urge her to get on with it. A quiet pause and she clicked her tongue against her teeth, gathering the courage to continue.

"But…I _am_ lonely. And…what's even stranger is that I _love_ it. I love being alone. I crave it. People talk about how they can't stand being alone, or how they need people or somebody to love. I need all that too but…damn, I also need my alone time. To gather my thoughts, gather myself. I need weeks, sometimes months of solitude and I don't think anybody could handle that. I'll smother you with love one week and then be the most distant stranger the next. Why? I don't know…"

Auggie thought about the sudden onslaught of emotions and thoughts pouring directly from Annie's mind. He had always known she was much more complicated than she let on, but this was something completely revolutionizing. It changed the way he saw her, and made him reinvent the idea of who Annie was and who he thought she was in his mind.

"And in all honesty, there hasn't been too much time for me to be able to disappear with work, but I've needed it. I've missed it…" Annie stopped talking, and Auggie knew that that was all he was going to get out of her for tonight.

After a quiet moment together, Auggie reached his hand over her unoccupied one and linked their fingers together. "I know this is strange, but…perhaps…maybe, just maybe, we can be lonely together."

And even though Annie knew that Auggie wouldn't see her soft nod, he felt her lightly squeeze his hand in hers.

With a soft whisper, she concluded their newly established intimacy.

"I'd like that."

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><p><strong>AN: Do me a favor and tell me what you think?**

**Best Regards,**

**Audrey C.**


	2. 023: Curious

**023. Curious**

As an agent, Annie could only be naturally inquisitive. She questioned, sought answers; even if it wasn't required of her, she couldn't particularly help it. It was a force of habit, something she had grown up with. Even as a child, she had always managed to be overly curious.

One of her mother's favorite stories to tell was when Annie was barely seven years old, and she had seen her parents kiss. They had never been too affectionate in front of Dani or Annie, for they had thought that they were impressionable, especially in their younger years. However, now that Dani was approaching double digits of age, and Annie was growing up too, they didn't find any reason to hide such things.

Annie, however, had never thought about kisses and seeing her parents do it only made her curious. Annie's mother only knew from what Annie had told her, and the conversation had started right after picking her daughters up from school.

"So Mommy, today at school, Danny kissed me!" Annie started, thinking that it wasn't strange for boys to kiss her randomly like that.

"Now Annie, how exactly did that happen?" Her mother asked, slightly flabbergasted at such an advance from a boy. Especially at Annie's age…most boys stayed away from girls for fear of so-called "cooties".

"It wasn't easy," young Annie admitted, "but three girls helped me catch him!"

Nowadays, Annie always shrugged off her mother's favorite story, fully knowing that she was still like that sometimes. In most of her relationships, she had initiated the first kiss.

Her first actual meaningful relationship, with a boy whose name always escaped her (even though Dani insisted his name was Kyle), she had made the first move. After their third or so date, he had made the move to hold her hand, and it was then, standing at her doorstep, that she had pressed her lips against his.

Granted, her memory of the kiss didn't make it as disastrous as she had thought it had been, but for first kisses, it hadn't been as bad as some of the stories she had heard from friends.

Never in her lifetime had she ever imagined that Auggie and she would have a first kiss, let alone the way it had happened.

A night at the tavern had proved too much fun for Auggie – with Annie as his designated driver, he had gone a bit too wild on mixing shots and beer. He was tipsy, slurring some of his words, and definitely not stable enough to make it up his apartment stairs by himself.

Parking her car, Annie had managed to undo Auggie's seatbelt, and escorted him away from her vehicle. Ever so carefully, she had linked their opposite hands and herded Auggie like a sheep up the stairs, cautious to assure that he had a firm foot on each step before leading him up another. It was difficult enough to lead a drunk up stairs, let alone someone who couldn't see and somewhat avoid obstacles for themselves.

With careful ministrations, Annie got Auggie to his door. She sighed, already tired out from the late night at the tavern and having to basically babysit Auggie.

"Aug, where are your keys?"

"Shouldn't be locked," Auggie mustered, his words sounding clearer, but a quick stumble over his own two feet proved that he wasn't as sober as his speech would allow someone to believe. Sure enough, Annie jiggled the door-knob and the door popped open easily.

She sighed. What kind of responsibility was it to leave the door open when one was going out? Auggie was sure to hear a good lecture about the dangers, especially in a big city, once he was sober.

Pushing the door open and walking into Auggie's spacious apartment, Annie pushed aside any possible obstructions or obstacles that would cause her trouble while trying to lead the stubborn drunk inside. Everything she could clear was soon out of the way, and with a quick look at her handiwork, Annie felt somewhat accomplished, but nothing out of the ordinary. Auggie didn't tend to leave clutter around. It was only a natural instinct, lest he trip over an item of particular importance due to laziness.

Stepping back out into the chilly fall night, Annie didn't see Auggie immediately, and she feared he had wandered off in his drunken stupor. Something about having alcohol in his system made him all the more fearless, intrusive, and adventurous. For all Annie knew, Auggie could have barged into his neighbor's apartment and was now causing a ruckus at….1am, a quick glance at her watch confirmed the time.

A quick glance around proved that Auggie was nowhere to be found. This was bad. Annie's heart rate spiked a bit, adrenaline starting to do its work as she tried hunting down Auggie. After five minutes of looking for him frantically downstairs, Annie sighed and walked back up, into his apartment.

Much to her surprise, Auggie was lying down on the couch; he was face down, a small throw pillow providing support for his head as he mumbled incoherent and unintelligible things to no one.

"Lose something?" A deep voice said from the kitchen.

Annie jumped instinctively, and almost pressed herself against the wall in a move of self-defense, but when Auggie's neighbor, Greg, showed his face, Annie calmed down.

"What are you doing in here?"Annie inquired, her eyes cautious. Even though Auggie had made sure that none of his neighbors were dangerous, Annie couldn't help but be paranoid some days.

"Well, Auggie here decided to drop by my place…" Greg shrugged. "Babysitting him can be difficult, so I figured I'd bring him back instead of finding you first and having him destroy my place."

"…Oh, I'm sorry," she said sheepishly.

"No worries. It happens. Have a nice night, Annie." Greg said respectfully as he withdrew from the apartment and shut the door behind him.

Unexpectedly, Annie wondered how he had known her name. Had she ever given it to him? Her paranoia escalated; now she could only wonder if he wasn't as coy or as much of a civilian as he claimed to be.

"Annie?" Auggie suddenly half sat up, looking like absolute hell.

"I'm here Aug." Annie said, going to sit down next to him. He slightly slouched against her, his head pressed against her shoulder. She felt suddenly subconscious – the sudden weight upon her shoulder made her shirt slip a bit downwards, revealing more than she was used to especially with him.

Annie shook it off, realizing it was silly of her to feel this conscious around Auggie. First of all, he wasn't going to see her bare shoulder and even if he could, he wasn't the type to say anything. He was a gentleman, foremost, even in his intoxication.

Suddenly, Annie felt Auggie lean closer, his head pressing more and more against her shoulder and neck. She felt her heartbeat stutter for a second, before rapidly pumping blood to her cheeks as a blush settled on them.

"You smell good," he said abruptly.

Annie pulled away quickly, and turned to look at Auggie. The thought of seeing one of her best friends in this light had never crossed her mind.

The passion that Auggie had in his eyes made Annie curious…she shouldn't have challenged him by moving, because within seconds, Auggie's hands were on Annie's neck, and he was propelling himself forward to join their lips.

For a second, she wondered how wrong this was, but the warmth and intensity of his lips smothering hers sent her reeling into an unknown realm of dwelling feelings for Auggie all over her. Her curiosity got the best of her – she couldn't help but imagine much more intimate things happening between them; her inquisitive nature had gotten the best of her, and now that it had been ignited, there was no stopping it.

In an instant however, it was all over as the taste of hard alcohol and something distinctly Auggie ruined the moment for her. He was drunk and he would never want her this way if he were sober.

She pulled away, separating them and stood up, as confusion crossed Auggie's face. "You should probably…umm, get to bed." Annie said awkwardly.

He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out, and he nodded. "Okay…" he stood up, stretched for a second and headed off to bed, but not without mumbling, "Good night Annie."

Annie sighed, got up and left, ready for the long drive home.

Nevertheless, her curious nature couldn't help but replay the moment again in her memories, and a small part of her wondered how Auggie's intensity affected everything else he did.

Perhaps, one day, Annie's subconscious wished, she would truly know.

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><p><strong>AN: First of all, thanks to those of you who reviewed. I'll try to respond in a timely fashion, but I've always been super forgetful, much to my dismay. T-T **

**Anyways, reviews mean so much to me and it would be awesome if you could take the time to do so and let me know what you think!**

**Best Regards,**

**Audrey C.**


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